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by **Tom Lauten** » May 20th, '06, 07:48

Holey Sh*t! By Pete Firman and Anthony Owen

Available from http://www.tvmagic.co.uk/

Price: £16.99

Close up card magic

Difficulty: 2 out of 5

They say:
Back in the early 1980s Richard Kaufman, Derek Dingle and Ken Krenzel created Holy P.O.D., a visual version of Alex Elmsley’s classic Point of Departure, from a card change effect idea by Gerard Majax. And now Pete Firman and Anthony Owen have brought it bang into the 21st century with… HOLEY SH*T!

"A stunningly visual piece of modern card magic" Jeff McBride

"JESUS!" Andy Nyman

"This is one of the best vanishes of a single playing card I have ever seen!" Marc Paul

"With this trick even I could get a TV series!" John Archer

"I've been doing Holy P.O.D. since I first read it in Richard's Almanac. It's one of the hidden gems of card magic and it's a real shame that everyone is about to know about it again thanks to Holy Sh*t! Not only is this an excellent version of this effect, but it completely fooled me the first time I saw it. And the second. And the third. Don't buy it - I want it for myself...." Paul Wilson

"Was I surprised? Yes. Was I fooled? Yes. Do I know how he did it? No. Did I make the mistake of betting Pete five bucks that I could dope out the method before he showed me the trick? Yes. Do I have that five bucks? No. Did Pete just call Rocco over to break my legs? Yes." David Acer

"Watch it with your fingers on the rewind button because the first time around you'll think you missed something. It really is a fooler. The selected card just disappears and there’s not a steal in sight. Definitely the most baffling version I've seen." David Britland

What will your audience say?

Comes complete with the special gimmicked Bicycle playing cards and instructional DVD hosted by Pete Firman, star of TV's Monkey Magic, Dirty Tricks, The Secret World of Magic and The Greatest Magic Tricks in the Universe Ever.

I say:
From the fertile mind of Anthony Owen and the fertile loins of Pete Firman springs “Holey Sh*t”. Eeeewwww… why did I say that, now I have to gouge out my minds eye!

Seriously, these two chaps, a respected TV magic producer/performer and curly-haired, psycho-magic-Hobbit, have come up with a rather tasty variation on “Point of Departure” or I should say “Holey P.O.D.”, a visual vanish of a card from between two other cards. Cool eh? But wait…there’s more!

Lets go back…Here is what you see in Holey Sh*t...

...The spectator selects a card, this card is slid into the centre of the deck by the spectator. With no fishy moves it rises to the top of the deck. The card is immediately taken away from the deck (no weird or extra flips or moves), the deck is set down out of reach.

The selected card (shown back and front) is openly placed between two cards with large holes in the centre of each (they too are shown front and back). The selected card is visible through the holes in the outer cards (it REALLY is). Now, with a flick of the fingers the centre card, up until this point still seen through the holes, vanishes. It was there and in a micro second there is air. This really is something to see, it looks like magic…not the fake kind…the real stuff…Oh, you know what I mean! POP! It’s gone…fantastic.

The two outer cards are now taken apart right in front of the spectators eyes and openly showing them, front and back, there is clearly NOTHING in between them. Now…you guessed it…the selection has moved back to the deck, what’s more it is the only card that is face up!...

You get the needed gimmicks and all you need to do is provide a matching deck (my set were red Bikes).

The instructions are provided on DVD only. Pete Firman offers everything from the history of the effect through to the finer subtleties of its performance. The video is a bit basic but the content is very complete and detailed and you also get to spend time with Mr. Firman as he takes you though Holey Sh*t in his friendly and humorous style.

Overall:
If you like close up card transpositions you won’t find any much more eye-buggng than this. The effect looks so clean and open. Spectators will NOT believe their eyes. The workings are really easy and the gaffs are very well made. Start with this trick, ditch the cards with holes in them at the end and you will have a full deck ready to carry on with another effect…perfect. Holey Sh*t plays with no real angle issues and is ideal for table top close up. Pete Firman and Anthony Owen have an impressive trick here. Those of you who work with card effects and want a visual stunner should snap up a copy of this one!

9 out of 10

.

by **Stephen Ward** » May 20th, '06, 08:26

Another Great Review Tom

CUPS, CUPS, CUPS

by **Tom Lauten** » May 20th, '06, 12:24

Give in...you know you want to... :twisted:

by **Martin Le Guerre** » May 23rd, '06, 21:50

I had to give in to CUPS and I endorse all the above comments. Great little trick, very visual, there's a couple of moves but nothing too taxing.

by **Rdw1971** » May 24th, '06, 11:46

Arrgghhh The websites down!!!!

CUPS is getting harder to resist.

by **Zero000** » May 25th, '06, 02:33

ARGH. cups cups cups. almost no money left...

by **Rdw1971** » May 25th, '06, 13:25

Still cant get to the shop. Loads up homepage, everything else gives an error.

by **Tom Lauten** » May 26th, '06, 15:40

It seems TV Magic's server went "ker-splat" but is up and running now so I should think the site, ordering system and emails should all be "as they should be" in short order!

by **Stephen Ward** » May 26th, '06, 15:42

Tom is trying to bankrupt us all (and stop looking like John Thompson :lol:

)

by **Rdw1971** » May 26th, '06, 15:46

OK, am I being a d*ck or something - I can not for the life of me find this on their site - just a bunch of t-shirts and posters.... :cry:

by **Stephen Ward** » May 26th, '06, 15:48

Magician's only section

by **Tom Lauten** » May 26th, '06, 21:47

stephenmagic wrote:Tom is trying to bankrupt us all (and stop looking like John Thompson )

LOL!

Magic...nice.

That's a new one on me! I have heard... Raul Malo from the Mavericks, a "young-ish" Orson Wells, Keifer Sutherland when I was younger, Mr. Beaver from Lion Witch and the Wardrobe and that bloke down the pub...you know, the one with the shirt? You know...that bloke...